Obsession: Transient
by amkay
Summary: She had always admired his art. Was it any surprise she fell in love with him? Deidara/OC, very AU.
1. Obsession

AN: A few years ago, I wrote this three-part oneshot OC/Deidara fanfic when I was a major fangirl of his. KB and I have read through it and we both agree that it's lacking in certain things. However, I decided to serve it to you guys on a silver platter. Have fun tearing it to shreds! :)

Disclaimer: This is for entertainment purposes only. And I would laugh my ass off if Kishimoto ever wrote something like this . . .

* * *

**Obsession: Transient**

It would've been too ambiguous to say that she loved him. No, she didn't hold any affection for the man, not in a romantic way. First off, she was too young to feel such things, especially for a man—a boy, really—who was two years her senior.

No, Isane did not love Deidara.

But . . . she did respect him.

Or more specifically, she respected his art.

Clay formed to perfection, so beautiful that even the most un-artistic people had to admire the blond's skill, only to be destroyed in a burst of fire, light, heat, and noise.

BOOM!

Yes, Isane admired his art like no other but the creator himself. She saw the true value of his art. For something so beautiful and precious to be admired, cherished, and loved . . . only for it to be taken away in an instant.

The tragedy of its loss was so realistic that Isane was surprised that something seemingly so simple was not truly appreciated by many others. All they saw was a destructive boy whose sanity clearly wasn't the best and likely never had been.

"He's crazy," they would say. "Children, don't go near him. He'll kill you with one of his bombs if you get too close."

And of course children being children—so young, foolish, and naïve—they would listen. All except Isane because she saw things for what they were.

The adults were afraid. Of the crazy blond boy and his art. What his art represented.

Isane supposed she could pardon the other kids. They really didn't understand what she did. How his art represented the truly fragile balance between life and death, and how sudden one's life could be taken away.

Perhaps that wasn't what he was going for. Isane had wondered that every now and then when she watched him work on his art from afar. Perhaps he just liked to watch the devastation the explosions brought to the world. She knew people could get a strange high from holding so much power and destruction in their control. She often felt the same with her lightning chakra and infusing it into her special kunai.

He did seem like a typical pyromaniac, except he used clay bombs instead of actual fire. Isane couldn't really figure out his reasons for making art unless if she asked him, and there was no way in hell she was doing that. Curious she may be, but she didn't like asking people questions. Besides, there was that old proverb about curiosity and the cat.

And Isane was too stubborn to depend on others for answers she believed she could discover herself. So she merely observed the blond from a distance, feeling no need to close it even as days turned into weeks and those weeks slowly became a month.

But of course he was bound to notice his little admirer eventually. He was a highly-trained shinobi after all, and she was only ten—she was not officially even a genin.

In fact, he had noticed her within the first few days of her observation. Deidara almost called it a crush since all she seemed to do was watch him, but he soon realized that it wasn't him she watched. At least not all the time.

No, she would always watch his art. Her bottle-green eyes widening slightly in interest every time he would detonate each clay creation. The only few times he secretly caught her watching him was when he would laze about for a while and contemplate his art and how he could improve it, because every true artist knew there was _always_ room for improvement.

What seemed odd to him (other than the fact that he was apparently being stalked by a little girl) was that the strange brunette never showed any desire to approach him.

Didn't she want to know about him and his art? Ask him questions? It seemed he was the only one with questions.

Though to be honest, he liked the fact that she was watching, regardless of whether she approached him or not. It felt good to know that at least _someone_ appreciated the true beauty of his art. Or at least that's what he assumed since she always watched his clay creations explode. The only possible way to know what she was really thinking would be to ask her.

A month later, he finally decided it was time to confront his strange little follower. And the girl's reaction was probably the most amusing he'd ever witnessed.

* * *

Isane wondered where the blond boy was upon arriving at the clearing where he usually practiced his art and finding it empty. She frowned at the barren training field for a moment before shrugging and plopping down on the ground, pulling out a kunai and concentrating on running her lightning chakra through the metal until it vibrated in her palm with a satisfying hum. Though she wasn't officially a genin yet, Isane still liked to train her abilities to the best she could with her limited knowledge.

"So you can wield lightning chakra? That's pretty rare, hm . . . Especially in this village."

The voice startled Isane so much that she lost control of her lighting chakra and without her concentration the chakra surged wildly and caused the kunai to explode in her hand. Isane yelped again, this time in pain as fragments of metal embedded themselves into her palm while the rest went flying into the woods around her.

As soon as she adjusted to the pain, Isane whirled around at the blond who was studying her with an amused smirk. "Must you sneak up on me?" she nearly snarled, but kept her tone cool.

He arched an eyebrow and snorted, chuckling at her indignant expression. "That's rich, kid. Me sneaking up on you? Hm, who's the one that's been spying on me for a whole _month_?"

Isane's cheeks immediately flushed red with the knowledge that he had known . . . _Well, of course he'd have known!_ Isane scolded herself silently. _He _is_ a shinobi, after all. It would've been really sad if he couldn't detect someone as untrained as me._

"I just wanted to watch," she mumbled, refusing to apologize for something she felt absolutely no repentance for.

His blue eyes—correction, _eye_ (his left was covered by one long golden bang) shone with amusement as he stared down at her. Isane shifted, uncomfortable at the intense scrutiny of the boy she had been watching for so long now.

_Karma's a bitch_, the brunette thought, looking up to meet his gaze with a stubbornness her aunty told her she'd inherited from her father. "What?" she snapped when he said nothing.

The boy's smirk widened into a grin at her feisty response, and he was reminded of himself whenever he was being lectured by his sensei. He surprised her when he knelt down in front of her and grabbed her injured hand, inspecting the wound. "It's not a good idea to leave those in there, kid," he informed, nodding at the metal fragments buried into the flesh of her hand. "Not unless you want to lose your hand."

She growled at him but didn't yank her hand away, choosing instead to glare at him with annoyance burning in her bright eyes. "Way to state the obvious, Blondie."

He rolled his eyes. "Use my name, kid. It's Deidara, hm."

Her eyes narrowed further until they resembled slits. "Then use my name, _Deidara_. It's Isane."

"Nice to finally put a name to my little stalker, hm."

"I'm not a stalker!" Isane snarled. She huffed at his skeptical look and finally yanked her hand away to cross her arms. "I was just a bit curious."

"Ever heard that curiosity killed the cat?" Deidara drawled as he stood, smirking smugly down at the irritated girl.

"Yeah, and satisfaction brought it back," she countered mulishly, unwilling to concede defeat.

The blond just shook his head, deciding to quit wasting time and get right to the point. "So care to tell me why you're following me around, Isane, hm?"

She huffed, "Like I said—simply curiosity." But at his arched eyebrow she reluctantly clarified, "About your art. I wanted to know why you always destroy it."

He stared down at her thoughtfully, though she wouldn't meet his gaze this time. Most likely out of embarrassment at having been caught. "Because true art is fleeting," he answered, wondering what she would say to that.

And her response did surprise him. Isane gazed up at him with a solemn look in her eyes. "Transient like life, right?" she asked with a seriousness not usually seen in children her age.

Deidara smiled, but it was a grim smile. "Yeah, like life, kid. That's art."

"Stop calling me that!" she snapped and his smile was once again that infuriating trademark smirk of his.

* * *

After that encounter, Isane was never far from Deidara's side, especially when he was working on his art. Unlike most shinobi his age, Deidara didn't really find the presence of a genin-in-training to be a nuisance. To him, Isane was like an apprentice. Eager to learn about his art, respecting it, and gradually him, and not just accepting his lessons without question like a fan would, but also shooting down some of them with her own theories.

The saying goes that a good teacher will teach his students, but the best teacher learns from them. And for a long time, Deidara and Isane's relationship was like that.

Until that day where Deidara made a decision that would change their lives forever.

* * *

AN: So . . . anyone want to run away screaming yet? No? Fine, but the next part may scare you away. Just you wait.

~amkay


	2. Change

Disclaimer: I'm thankful I don't own Naruto. That kid would've been such a little hellion to deal with on a daily basis.

AN: Part two . . . Here's where I started cringing in horror.

* * *

_Change_

The day everything changed between Isane and her pseudo mentor, Deidara, was one she would remember well. Because that was the day when she started to see him not only as her friend and teacher, but also as something more.

It started with a routine training session. As he was wont to do lately, Deidara had ditched his regular team to meet with Isane in the very first training field they had spoken to one another. It was an unofficial meeting spot that they never stated aloud would serve as their training ground, because it was unnecessary to say anything. Habit was a dangerous thing for shinobi to form, but neither Deidara nor Isane were worried about it.

After all, nobody would've dared to bother them so far out from the confines of the village.

Unlike routine, however, Isane wasn't practicing any of her specialized lighting-based moves. Instead, she was merely lying flat on her back and staring up at the sky with an unidentifiable expression on her face when Deidara arrived. She didn't even react when he stood over her and blocked her view of the clear blue sky above.

Frowning at her odd behavior, Deidara asked, "Something on your mind, kid?"

"Not a kid anymore, Blondie," was her automatic retort, but it seemed to pull her out of the weird daze she had been in.

"You'll always be younger than me, hm," he replied teasingly, smirking at the annoyed look she shot him. It never ceased to amuse him how sensitive she was to their two-year age difference. Deidara didn't really know what the big deal was—most girls seemed to enjoy being young—but that was just another one of Isane's quirks that she didn't really show except around people she trusted.

And with that list shortened down to her Aunty Nori, her team's teacher Tsuru-sensei, and him, Deidara considered that he was lucky enough to be one of the few that had managed to break through the reserved brunette's barriers.

Though lately he was finding himself craving more than just her friendship.

Isane released a decidedly un-lady-like snort, gesturing for him to get out of her way and sit down next to her. She spoke dryly as he did so. "If you think of it that way, you'll always be an old man to me, Deidara."

She glanced at him sideways as he gave her a disgruntled look, and it made her crack a small smile.

"So why aren't you practicing like crazy, hm?" Deidara asked a few minutes later, bored of looking up at the sky with only silence around them.

The brunette was quiet for a few moments longer, dragging on the blond's patience, and then she answered in a low whisper that he barely caught. "Aunty wants to move back to her hometown."

It felt like Deidara's heart stopped beating at those words.

Isane continued on, either oblivious or just ignoring his reaction altogether, her gaze focusing on something in the distance that only she could see. "She says she's tired of seeing the same old rocks and the same old dull life go by and that a change of scenery would spice things up again." The sixteen-year-old let loose a hollow laugh that tugged painfully at her companion's heart, especially since he'd never heard her sound so . . . so miserable before. "I guess I understand what she means. Iwa isn't exactly the most exciting place in the world, but . . ." Isane trailed off and shut her eyes, her expression showing a sorrow Deidara hadn't thought her capable of holding.

"Change is okay, but not when I'm leaving behind the person I care about most."

The next thing Isane knew, she felt something warm and soft pressing against her lips. Her eyes shot open in surprise to stare up into familiar sky blue eyes that gazed at her with a strange mix between gentleness and determination. Shocked, Isane could only lie there frozen as Deidara, her mentor and best friend, kissed her.

And when he began to pull back, she finally snapped out of her daze and reacted instinctively.

Her arms wove around his shoulders almost tentatively and she pulled him back to her, pressing her lips to his with a shyness that was wholly unlike her brash personality yet oddly fit her right then. The blond allowed her to lead the kiss, wanting her to be the one to explore this new experience between them. When he felt her tongue brush timidly against his lips, he chuckled before opening his mouth to her.

Isane couldn't believe this was happening.

She was kissing Deidara. Her best friend and the boy who had been teaching her the ways of his art for the past six years. And yet . . . _I can't help but want him to be more than that_, she thought as her tongue slipped slowly inside his mouth. He tasted unlike anything she'd ever had before. Oddly enough, there was the dryness of clay and its powdery flavor before it was pliant, and the spiciness of the bakudan he loved to eat, and then there was a sweet taste that she couldn't define.

And she wouldn't figure it out any time soon because Deidara chose that moment to suck on her exploring tongue, bringing out a moan she hadn't thought herself capable of and successfully distracting her from any thoughts of examining his personal flavor. Evidently, judging by his surprised expression neither had he. Turning the most fascinating shade of red, Isane pushed the blond away from her face enough so she could turn her head to the side and not stare into his slowly emerging amused expression.

"Don't," she said before he could say anything. Isane could feel his frown as he stared down at her.

"What's wrong, Isane? It's only a natural reaction, hm," Deidara replied, reaching out to stroke his hand along her jaw.

Isane tensed at his touch but didn't move away. Instead, she admitted in a low voice, "I wouldn't know . . . this is the first time I've ever kissed anyone. Much less like that."

To say that Deidara felt proud to have been her first kiss would have been an understatement. He also felt strangely responsible for Isane's first experience with something like this. As if he wanted to make this moment her very best.

While her head was still turned, Deidara leaned down and began to place gentle kisses on the skin of her exposed throat. It made her gasp in surprise at the tingling sensation suddenly burning on her skin, but the blond merely shushed her when she tried to protest.

"Relax, Isane," he murmured against her skin. "Just lay back and let me show you this, hm. And don't be ashamed of your reactions—I like them."

And so, with a shy smile, Isane closed her eyes and lay back to just relax and let him make her feel things she'd never thought she could feel before. All the while wondering if this was just a one-time thing brought on by her admittance to moving, or if it was something much, much more.

* * *

AN: Um . . . Yeah. Next chapter is the final one . . . And it has a lemon. But I'll upload that later. For now, reel in horror or whatever. (Have I mentioned that I hate my OC/Canon character stories?)


	3. Final Goodbye

AN: Here's the end of this, and it covers a major timeskip. This definitely diverges from the canon timeline. As for what I think of this? I hate it. So by all means, bash it to Hell and back.

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I would've given Naruto a giant orange house, Kakashi a milk bone, Sasuke a tomato garden, and Sakura more character development in the beginning. Seeing as none of that happened . . .

Warning: Lemon ahoy! Beware!

* * *

_Final Goodbye_

"_I'm leaving tonight, hm."_

Those were the words that had made up Isane's mind about the decision she had been stalling on ever since she found out just how much the blond had slipped past her barriers. Just three simple words (four, if you count that speech impediment he had never been able to get rid of, much less attempted to) and Isane knew what she wanted.

In the end, she understood that his art had always meant more to him than she or anything else ever would. After all, it was the one thing he had that was truly his without question. Even Isane was never completely his to have, because she was like lightning.

Fast, powerful, free, and completely indomitable.

He'd been trying to stop a storm with bare hands when it came to her, and he'd only gotten hurt in the end. Earth was never really good at handling lightning, anyway. It was its one true weakness.

Isane smirked emptily at her thoughts. She'd never been much for poetry, but that comparison couldn't help but appeal to her.

Earth and lightning, always separated by thousands of miles until the latter struck with vicious precision that often left the former crumbling in pain.

She'd never meant to hurt him in the same way, but there was no point in dwelling in the past. All she could do was hold her head up high and keep looking forward to the future.

_And maybe . . . if I'm lucky enough . . . we'll meet again someday. That would be nice, wouldn't it, Deidara?_

As if he'd been summoned by her thoughts, the very man suddenly appeared before her, his form hidden by the shadows of the night as he waited for her to say her part. She wished she could see his expression but then after recalling their last encounter thought better of it and resisted the urge to ask him to come closer.

She didn't want to see his eyes full of hatred.

So Isane continued to lounge casually against the door to the forbidden scrolls storage room, eyeing his form with a carefully blank expression devoid of the emotions she felt raging like a storm inside her. "So this is it, Deidara?" she asked emotionlessly. Impersonally. "You're really going for it then."

She could feel his eyes on her, the power of his stare dragging out shivers along her bare arms, but she fought back any other visible reaction. She wasn't here to play tag with him. It was now kill or be killed.

_But can I really go that far?_ Isane wondered with her eyes focused completely on her opponent.

Finally, the shadow spoke. "Are you really planning on stopping me, kid?" he asked indifferently. She could just barely make out the blue of his right eye and the red light of his scope hidden behind his bangs.

Isane narrowed her eyes and tensed, preparing for a fight. "If you haven't noticed, old man, I'm not much of a kid anymore."

And she saw his gaze flick up and down her body, saw him smirk at the shudder she failed to subdue, and in that moment she knew he understood her real intentions for being there. "The guards, hm?" he questioned as he slowly stalked out of the shadows, gaze focused solely on her.

Isane smirked and held up a senbon needle, the metal tip sparking with a jolt of her lightning chakra. "Already subdued and stripped of weapons, clothes, and their dignity, Deidara. Guess they never thought to have security measures in place for rampaging little kids."

He was closer now. Much closer. So near that she could see all of his face even in the darkness, feel his hot breath on her skin. She shivered again, a motion she knew he could see all too well, and watched as his blue, blue eye darkened with lust.

"You have half an hour tops," she warned him as he leaned forward. "Make it count."

And then she was slammed into the door as the blond man began to devour her through her mouth. Isane was soon moaning his name as he sucked on her lips, her neck, and his hands roamed her willing body as she wrapped her legs around his waist and felt him between her legs. Isane closed her eyes as his hands slid up her shirt and brushed against her heated bare skin, rubbing closer and closer to the sensitive flesh of her breasts. She wound her arms around his neck and brought his face to hers, kissing him feverishly with all the desire and need she'd ever felt for him in her actions.

One of his hands began wandering south and Isane, caught in the heat of the moment, murmured lustfully in his ear, "Yes, Deidara, I need you. Right here, right now. _Please_."

Isane never begged. Hell, she hardly ever asked for anything because of her damned pride. But now here she was. Begging him to all but ravish her in a way he'd only dreamed of doing. Though his mission was still in the back of his mind, Deidara couldn't really bring himself to care about it much in that moment. Because right now, a beautiful and sexy as hell woman was asking him to take her in the best way conceivable.

And as a hot-blooded male, Deidara didn't really feel like denying her that.

Isane could barely let out a gasp of surprise as the hand that had been sliding sensually down her body suddenly shot to her black shorts and pulled them down. She watched the blond's visible eye widen in surprise and then darken to a deep midnight blue as the desire running rampant increased. "No panties, Isane?" he purred, his finger stroking the edge of her entrance.

The brunette trembled at the sensations shooting through her at his ministration, her legs instinctively tightening around his waist so his finger rubbed her closer.

_Oh, god!_ Isane thought, shutting her eyes as his finger slipped inside her warmth. "Deidara!" she gasped as he inserted more fingers and began stroking her with a skill she hadn't known he possessed.

"Tell me what you want, Isane. Hm," he demanded, watching her face and the expressions that flickered briefly across it. Memorizing them so he could watch them over and over and over again at his leisure.

_Artists _are_ skilled with their hands_, a more controlled part of her mind thought. Isane moaned in pleasure at the sweet torture the blond was wreaking upon her. Suddenly, he brushed a particularly sensitive spot inside her that had her screaming his name.

"Answer me," he repeated, eye flashing intently.

Helpless, Isane panted heavily, "You. Inside me. _Now_." She was done begging.

Luckily, he sensed that and with a teasing flick of his fingers, he hit that spot again and relished in her cry of pleasure that came in the form of his name. "If you insist, Isane, hm," he replied and then a second later he thrust inside her.

Pain. Bright, intense, overwhelming pain ripped through Isane's body and her cries were only muffled by Deidara's lips on hers. She felt a few tears leak out of her eyes and trail down her cheeks, but the man quickly kissed them away. Isane clung to him, burying her face into the crook of his neck where she silently wept at the agony currently rolling through her.

Deidara kept still, regretting that he'd hurt her so badly that she'd actually cried a little bit, but he knew it was a necessary hurt. So he waited patiently for her to adjust to the sensation of him being inside her. Even if it was slowly killing him to finally have her but not move to truly claim her.

The pain finally began to dull and Isane was able to focus on the feeling of Deidara within her. It was odd, to say the least, to feel something other than her fingers sheathed in her sex, but it nevertheless felt good.

_More than good_, Isane thought, eyes slipping closed as she reached up and steadied herself on his shoulders. _This feels like heaven._ And she knew it was only about to get better.

Mentally steeling herself, Isane kept a careful grip on his shoulders and allowed her body to slowly slide down his, hearing the sharp intake of his breath as she eased him within her hot, wet core. When he was fully sheathed inside, Isane found herself face to face with him and, coyly, she leaned in and brushed her lips to his, silently telling him it was all right to go now.

_Dear, god!_ Deidara thought as Isane suddenly slid down his body. He had to force himself not to take her right then, forcibly reminding himself that she could still be hurt because of him, but all thoughts of self-blame flew out the window, so to speak, when he found the woman's lips on his.

"I'm ready," Deidara could practically hear her think. "Please, Dei, move!"

Mouth still locked on hers, Deidara began to move. He felt her moan against his lips and had to fight back one himself. _Good god! This must be what it felt like to slowly disintegrate_, the blond thought as Isane's heat wrapped around him. And when she began moving with him, he felt a completely new sense of pleasure fill him.

_Isane_, he thought, staring at her face and how her eyes were closed in absolute bliss from this moment of intimacy she was sharing with him. _Isane. Isane. Isane . . . I . . . I think I could fall for you._

The brunette was thinking much along the same lines as him, only she was much further along. _Deidara, I love you_, she thought to herself, shuddering at the feelings he woke within her not just physically, but emotionally as well. _I love you so, so very much. And it's killing me to know that you don't feel the same. At least not yet . . ._

Isane actually wondered if he would ever be able to feel the same about her as she did for him. With the passion he had for his art, she couldn't help but think it wasn't very likely.

_Earth and lighting_, she thought again as she felt him take hold of her thighs and hoist them higher so he could take more control of the rhythm. _Polar opposites never truly meant to join without the destruction of one occurring._

And every single time it was lightning that triumphed over earth.

As Deidara's pace increased and Isane's muscles began to tighten around him, she hoped that, just this once, the earth wouldn't shatter.

And then there was no more hope or thought, for they had finally reached the end and the true beauty of fleeting art was all they could think about.

Fleeting—because in the end that's what this was, and they both knew it.

* * *

"_You sure you won't come with me?"_

"_Yes . . . What you're looking for won't be found here. But somewhere out there . . . yeah, I'd only get in the way and we both know it."_

_They stared at each other for a long moment, eyes conveying messages that neither was comfortable with saying aloud. Because that would make everything real._

"_Will you wait for me?" he finally asked._

_She didn't say anything for a few minutes. Just when he was about to give up and turned to go, she ran at him and hugged him tightly, her face burying into his back. "For however long it takes, Deidara. I . . . take care, old man. I don't want you dying before I get the chance to kick your ass in a rematch!"_

_Unseen by her, the blond smirked. It almost felt like everything between them was back to normal. Almost. Twisting around, he caught her mouth with his, giving one last kiss just in case . . ._

Don't think about it_, he thought and slowly pulled away, studying the way her eyes were half-lidded as they stared at him in somewhat of a daze. "Right, catch you later, kid, hm," he said and leapt onto the clay bird he built with the help of the kinjutsu he'd been able to steal much faster thanks to her._

_Her cry of "I'm not a kid anymore, you jackass!" saluted him off into the night as a final goodbye, and he supposed he wouldn't have it any other way._

_Hey, now that he was an S-rank traitor, he didn't want that reputation being ruined by people thinking he was a big softie or anything. _

_And in his opinion, having a pissed off woman threatening to cut your remaining eye out was a good enough excuse for any man to run away from his home village._

"Hey, you hear the news?"

"You mean about the death of that one traitor?"

"Yeah! What was his name again? Man, you'd think a guy would be able to remember a criminal that came from his own damned village."

"Deidara. That sick bastard finally got what was comin' to him."

"Heh, I heard he actually blew himself up. All for the sake of killing that one Uchiha brat that recently betrayed Konoha."

"Too bad he missed. That would've hit two birds with one stone otherwise."

"Eh, who cares? That bastard is finally gone and I feel like having a few celebratory drinks. You coming? First round's on me."

"Hell yeah! What about you, Isa—huh? Isane?"

"Huh, wonder where she's off to in such a hurry."

"Eh, whatever. Women are weird like that. Now how about those drinks, buddy."

"Heh, you never change, man."

* * *

_No, no, no, no, no . . ._ She repeated the word over and over again like a mantra in her head, desperate for it to not be true as she rushed toward the Tsuchikage's tower. Isane passed a dark-haired woman she vaguely recognized as the Tsuchikage's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, but she ignored her. Solely intent on reaching the village leader's office.

She made it there one minute later but didn't even need to enter to receive answers to her questions. A woman was speaking to Ōnoki-sama just as Isane halted outside the door.

"This was all we could find after the blast. Everything else within a ten mile radius was incinerated beyond recognition."

Isane's breath caught in her throat as she heard Ōnoki's gruff voice. "I'd recognize that piece of metal anywhere. Yep, that's the brat's eye scope. He never went anywhere without it after the accident. It's as good as confirmation of his death as we'll get right now."

_Dead._

That was all that Isane could focus on and without another thought she formed a seal and used shunshin to get away to the only place she could truly think.

The old training field greeted her with nothing but past reminders that it hadn't been visited in nearly eight years, which was when Deidara had first—_No_, she thought, collapsing to the ground as the tears she never let show to anyone finally came pouring out into the open.

"Please, god, no! Not him! Not him!" Isane begged quietly, her hands fisting tightly into her hair as her emotions began to overpower her.

And then she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Mama?"

The brunette's tears came to a halt and she looked up in surprise to meet oh-so-familiar sky blue eyes staring at her curiously, and with slight worry.

"Mama, are you okay, yeah?"

And Isane almost choked out a strangled laugh at the little "yeah" the sandy-haired girl habitually added at the end of her sentence. In that moment, Akira reminded Isane so much of the girl's father that she almost progressed with her breakdown.

Almost.

"I'm fine, sweetie," Isane lied, smiling softly and felt a pit of relief when her daughter accepted the lie without question. She knew Akira saw through her words, seeing as the girl had inherited both of her parents' perceptiveness, but nevertheless the little girl already knew better than to dig too deep if someone obviously didn't want to talk about something.

Strangely enough, Akira had gotten that trait from her Great Aunty Nori, who was a formidable old woman yet still one of the most considerate people Akira and Isane had ever known. Isane and Deidara certainly hadn't known when to back off once they discovered a secret.

"_Ever heard that curiosity killed the cat?"_

"_Yeah, and satisfaction brought it back."_

The words, from so long ago when the future seemed like nothing more than a far-off dream, echoed in her mind. Coming back from when she was just a silly little ten-year-old girl admiring a silly twelve-year-old boy creating what he proclaimed to be true art.

"_Because true art is fleeting."_

"_Transient like life, right?"_

"_Yeah, like life, kid. That's art."_

"_Stop calling me that!"_

"And today this stupid boy told me that earth chakra was better than lightning chakra 'cause it was easier to control, yeah!" Akira huffed, her arms crossed as she stared moodily up at the sky, her blue eyes reflecting its dazzling color perfectly despite her sullenness.

Isane smiled down at her daughter, wondering if she'd ever been like that with . . . with him.

"Well, did you know that lightning beats earth any day, Akira-chan?" Isane asked her five-year-old daughter.

Akira looked up at her mother with wide blue eyes, a spark of amazement causing those azure orbs to resemble almost sapphires in the light. "Really, mama?" she breathed in wonder.

Isane smirked and held up a pebble in her right, the rock resting in the center of barely noticeable scars on the palm. It looked like fragments of something had cut into the skin very deeply before being carefully removed.

"_It's not a good idea to leave those in there, kid. Not unless if you want to lose your hand."_

"_Way to state the obvious, Blondie."_

"Watch closely, baby," Isane told her eager daughter and then let loose a small bit of her lightning chakra.

And the little girl did watch as her mother told her to. Her eyes rounding even more in surprise as she watched the little pebble her mother held was zapped by electricity for a few seconds before it finally crumbled away to dust.

"Whoa, that was amazing, Mama!" Akira exclaimed and grabbed at her mother's pants. "Can you please do that again? Please, please, _please_, yeah?"

Isane laughed at the puppy eyes her daughter was giving her but nodded. "Of course, Akira-chan," she replied, stooping down to search for a suitable pebble to use. "Just have a little patience and good fortune will come to you."

_And maybe . . . if I'm lucky enough . . . we'll meet again someday. That would be nice, wouldn't it, Deidara?_

"Mama! Mama! Look at this! Don't you think this would make the perfect exploding rock, yeah?"

Isane glanced up from the road and smiled at her daughter as she ran towards her, hands outstretched but held closed very tight in order to protect the "exploding rock" she had found.

"All right, Akira-chan, just let me take a look . . . at it," Isane trailed off as she stared at the object her daughter placed in her hand. And the so-called rock made her breath catch in her throat as shock rippled through her.

In her hand was a smooth and solid ball of white clay.

_But . . . they said . . ._

"Mama, you okay, yeah?" Akira asked worriedly as her mother stared at the rock oddly. Then again, she supposed that the rock was worthy of being stared at.

It was so perfectly smooth and round, and shone with the purest white color she had ever seen on a stone. And Akira could tell the rock had power, too. It told her so when it tingled upon meeting her hands.

"Akira-chan, honey, where'd you find this?"

Akira snapped out of her reverie at her mother's inquiry. She pointed out at the forest, her eyes trained directly upon a certain tree at the border of the clearing. "That man spying on us from behind the tree gave it to me, yeah," she said with a shrug, presumably in the supposed man's direction for having told his secret. "He said in exchange for a good exploding rock, I had to keep his presence a surprise."

Isane stared straight ahead, just barely having picked up her daughter's explanation. Instead, she called out hesitantly, "Deidara? Is that you?"

Akira cocked her head to the side as she watched her mother call out to where the man was hiding. She quickly noticed her mother had dropped the exploding rock and, quickly forming a few calculations in her mind, infused some of her lightning chakra into the stone and hurriedly tossed it in the direction of the trees.

She pointed her fingers at the flying stone and called out with an impish grin, "Bang, yeah!" and a bolt of lightning arced from her fingers to the airborne rock.

It exploded and she watched in satisfaction as the man that had given her the stone was forced to leap out of his hiding place, coincidentally landing right in front of her flabbergasted mother.

"Deidara . . . Is that really you?" Isane asked the blond man shuffling nervously in front of her.

"Um, hey, Isane," he said nervously, his eyes flashing from her to the little brat smirking impishly at him from the sidelines. "Heh, long time no see, hm?"

Isane promptly punched him in the face and started calling him all the most vile names she could come up with. But jackass was a frequently featured one.

And little Akira? Well, like the smart little five-year-old she was, she plugged her ears and enjoyed the show of her mother beating the tar out of the man she had figured out pretty quickly was her father. After all, if his speech impediment hadn't been a dead giveaway, her mother's reaction to the man certainly had.

And so the reunited family lived relatively happily ever after—though of course Deidara needed quite a number of bandages afterwards.

* * *

AN: And on that incredibly cheesy note, this nuisance has come to an end. Tell me, does Isane lack personality? Isn't Deidara OOC? Is Akira adorable? (Okay, so she's pretty much the only thing I liked about this.) Share your thoughts in a review, please. It's appreciated.

~amkay


End file.
